Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Teachers sue to block Florida teacher evaluation system

As of this morning, a group of seven Florida teachers from three
counties filed suit against the Florida Commissioner of Education, the
Florida Board of Education and the school boards of those three counties
- Alachua, Hernando and Escambia. The lawsuit was filed in the
District Court of the United States for the Northern District of
Florida, Gainesville Division today.

Perhaps the lawsuit can be explained by looking at plaintiff Kim
Cook, first grade teacher at W.W. Irby Elementary School in Alachua
County. SHe holds a Master’s Degree in Multilingual and Multicultural
Education, plays a leading role both within her school and the greater
community in spreading best teaching practices for teaching English to
speakers of other languages, and was selected as her school’s Teacher of
the Year in 2012-13.

But consider that in 2011-2012 40% of her evaluation was based on
FCAT (Florida state tests) reading tests of 4th and 5th graders at
Alachua County Elementary School, where she does not teach, whom she has
never taught, whom she has never even met. She is scheduled to be
similarly evaluated this year. Oh, and by the way? Even though her
school considered her their teacher of the year, because of the
requirements of the Florida law, SB 736,
her official evaluation was that her performance was "unsatisfactory."
Under that law, teachers rated unsatisfactory (the lowest of the four
performance ratings under the law) two consecutive years or two out of
three years in a row are subject to termination or non-renewal.
Transfers, promotions and layoffs are based on the assigned performance
rating. And, as of July 1, 2014, salaries will be based on the
assigned performance rating as well.

Or perhaps we can look at Bethann Brooks, a health science teacher at
Central High School in Hernando County, who is also a registered nurse
and who teaches tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders in courses designed
to prepare them to work as nursing assistants, medical administrative
assistants and in similar fields. She was selected as both her school’s
and Hernando County’s Teacher of the Year in 2012-13. 51% of her
2011-2012 evaluation was based on reading scores of all ninth and tenth
graders at Central High School, most of whom she does not teach.
Obviously the few she teaches her instruction is NOT in reading, but in
health science subjects not assessed by the test. she is again schedule
to be evaluated in that fashion for the current school year.
The other 5 plaintiffs have similar stories.

All 7 allege that they are being treated in an arbitrary, irrational
and unfair fashion in being evaluated for both last year and this year
with significant (40% or more) of their evaluations based on the
standardized test performance of students they do not teach, or from
subjects they do not teach.

The lawsuit contends that teachers’ evaluations based on the test
scores of students they do not teach or based on subjects they do no
teach violate the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The 7 are all outstanding teachers, which is why they have been
selected as the defendants for this case, which will be discussed later
today in press conference organized jointly by the National Education
Association and its Florida affiliate the Florida Education Association,
which are also parties to the suit.

Florida is not alone in having laws evaluating teachers on the basis
of test scores of students. States which received funding under Race to
the Top were as one requirement of receipt of the funds distributed as
part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (the stimulus) to
base a significant portion of teacher evaluation upon the assessment
performance of students.

A ‘value-added’ travesty for an award-winning teacher

Here’s the crazy story of Kim Cook, a teacher at Irby Elementary, a
K-2 school which feeds into Alachua Elementary, for grades 3-5, just
down the road in Alachua, Fla. She was recently chosen by the teachers
at her school as their Teacher of the Year.

Her plight stems back to last spring when the Florida Legislature
passed Senate Bill 736, which mandates that 40 percent of a teacher’s
evaluation must be based on student scores on the state’s standardized
tests, a method known as the value-added model, or VAM.
It is essentially a formula that supposedly tells how much “value” a
teacher has added to a student’s test score. Assessment experts say it
is a terrible way to evaluate teachers but it has still been adopted by
many states with the support of the Obama administration.

Since Cook’s school only goes through second grade, her school
district is using the FCAT scores from the third graders at Alachua
Elementary School to determine the VAM score for every teacher at her
school.

Alachua Elementary School did not do well in 2011-12 evaluations that
just came out; it received a D. Under the VAM model, the state awarded
that school — and Cook’s school, by default — 10 points out of 100 for
their D.

In this school district, there are three components to teacher evaluations:

1. A lesson study worth 20 percent. In the lesson study, small groups
of teachers work together to create an exemplary lesson, observe one of
the teachers implement it, critique the teacher’s performance and
discuss improvement.

This is her second year at Irby Elementary, where she teaches first
grade. She never taught a single student who took the FCAT at Alachua
Elementary last spring. The same will hold true for this year’s
evaluation; 40 percent of her appraisal will be based on the scores of
students she has never taught.

Every teacher will be evaluated using the new evaluation criteria
and student learning growth. Veteran teachers must demonstrate Highly
Effective or Effective performance; if they are rated unsatisfactory two
consecutive or two out of three years, they will be placed on an annual
contract then, if there is no improvement, terminated.

Here’s what Cook wrote to me in an e-mail:

I have almost 25 years of experience as a teacher. I JUST got my
2011-2012 evaluation on Friday. There is a real possibility that I will
receive an unsatisfactory evaluation for this school year. I may go up
to “needs improvement”, but either way, my job is in jeopardy.

Last month, the faculty and staff at my school voted for me as
Irby Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year. I am so honored to have
been chosen. I work with an amazing group of teachers. They are the most
hardworking and talented group of women I have had the privilege to
know. Yet every single teacher at my school received an evaluation of
“needs improvement” or “unsatisfactory” because of this insane system
that the Republican state legislators and Gov. [Rick] Scott dreamed up
at the beckoning of Jeb Bush and ALEC [American Legislative Exchange Council]. My colleagues and I deserve better than this.”

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Stop thinking that some magic one size fits all meassuring device is going to be able to determine if students learn and teachers teach. Stop mistrusting teachers and start challenging those who don't but think they know.

So does the principal get rid of her or keep a good teacher and risk his own job based on his evaluation instrument. Pretty soon you won't have any educators in the school buildings at all, just someone opening the mailed exams and test results.

Pilots are trained to trust their instruments and not their perceptions when flighting through challenging conditions, but even the most experience pilot is going to pull up to gain altitude when he see's he is about to hit a moutainside due to a miscalibrated altimeter.

To carry that metaphor a little further, we need to stop standardizing VFR operations and having everyone fly above the clouds. Instead drop down where we can actually see the land scape we are traversing. You fly too high and your navigation is based on instruments and other folk's directions who aren't even in your plane: you get down where you have visual contact with the surface, it keeps you on your toe but it also provide the most accurate interpretations of where you are and where you are heading.

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On the campaign trail...with my wife Rita

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